Coming Destruction on a God Provoking Nation — E.A. Johnston

A Warning That Calls the Nation to Pray for Revival

As we reach the anniversary of the tragedy of 9 -11, my heart is heavy, friends, for a number of reasons. I don't like preaching messages like this. It's not an encouraging, uplifting message, and it pains me to even bring it before you, but I must be disobedient to God.

I pray that this message will burn on somebody's heart the need to pray for revival for this sad and sick nation of ours. I recall, right after the terrorist attacks the following Sunday of 9 -11, that the churches were crowded with inquiring people who were seeking answers and comfort to this horrific event, and it seemed for a time that the things of God and eternity were once again gaining ground in the land.

America’s Failure to Repent After 9-11

I believe that 9 -11 was a wake-up call to America, but I fear since then many have gone back to sleep. Instead of that tragedy being a beginning of a nation turning back to God in repentance and in contrition, in many ways it hardened the soul of a nation, and since that time this nation has fallen into the most God-provoking sins that it is a marvel that a holy and righteous God has not destroyed us entirely.

John Owen, Josephus, and the Destruction of Jerusalem

There is a quote by John Owen the Puritan that I believe can be compared to our nation today. Let me read it to you now, friends. When a sinful church or people have passed the utmost bounds of divine patience and forbearance, they fall into such abominable crying sins and provocations as shall render the utmost vengeance beneath their desserts.

So Josephus affirms of this generation of the Jews, after they had rejected and slain the Lord Christ, that they fell into such a hell of provoking abominations, that if the Romans had not come and destroyed them, God would have sent fire and brimstone upon them from heaven as he did Sodom.

Hebrews and the Imminent Fall of Jerusalem

That's a very alarming statement, friends. The title of my message today is, Common Destruction on a God-provoking Nation, and my text can be found in the book of Hebrews. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends, as we study this solemn passage of scripture.

The majority of scholars do not agree on the authorship of Hebrews. Some say that Barnabas wrote it. Martin Luther suggested Apollos was the author. Some scholars even suggest Philip wrote it, but more than others suggest the apostle Paul as its author, that perhaps Paul wrote it in the Hebrew tongue, and it was later transcribed by Luke into the Greek.

So there is a division on the authorship of Hebrews. But most scholars are in agreement as to the date this epistle was written, and most agree it was written prior to the sack and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A .D.

It was most likely penned in 69 A .D., just prior to this devastating event, and one of its main purposes was to prepare the Jewish Christians for the impending disaster of the Roman destruction of their beloved city, Jerusalem.

Everything they held dear would soon be destroyed. The temple, with its system of animal sacrifice, and the office of the priest would soon be done away with, as there would be no more need for a priest, for Christ's death opens the way for direct access to God, and no more need of the sacrifice of animals for sin, as the blood of Christ now continually takes away sin.

So this epistle to the Hebrews contains both comfort, encouragement, as well as dire warnings. Let not your heart be hardened, as in the provocation. The recipients of this book had no clue as to what destruction and terror was to befall them in one year's time, and if you want to read one of the most horrific accounts imaginable, read the eyewitness account of the destruction of Jerusalem by the historian Josephus.

It'll make the hair stand on the back of your head. Remember how I felt the day after 9 -11. I felt violated, vulnerable. I can only imagine how the surviving Jews felt, that saw their loved ones cut down with swords, and their beloved temple destroyed, and their city set on flames.

The text I want to read us today, friends, as it pertains to our subject, is seen in verses 11 -14 in chapter 13 of Hebrews. Let me read this important passage of scripture at this time, and may the Spirit of God attend the reading of His word.

For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.

Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but seek one to come. Let me ask you, friends, did the Jews have a continuing city after it was burned?

It was said that the city of Jerusalem was unoccupied for 60 years after its destruction. Its only inhabitants were wild beasts and weeds. The judgment of a holy God fell upon the Christ-rejecting Jews, and it was a final destruction.

The Warning of Final Destruction for America

And I want to bring before you, friends, this question. Why hasn't God destroyed America for all her violence and perversions and rejection of both the word of God and the God of the word? Why does He allow this corrupt nation and morally sick society to continue?

I propose to you that He won't. There is a coming final destruction from the hand of God on this nation that will leave it in ashes and leave it in ruins as a testimony to future historians that a nation cannot mock God and survive.

America’s Rejection of Biblical Authority

Look in your Bible and try to find a reference to America in the end times. You'll find Gog and Magog there. You'll see Russia and China, but not America, for it no longer exists. What has transpired in this country since 9 -11 is this.

We as a nation have kicked God out of our judicial system. We kicked Him out of our educational system. We kicked Him plum out of corporate society in an attempt to call evil good and good evil to where our young people today deny the God of the Bible and live lives of debauchery as if He did not even exist.

Revival, Wrath, and God’s Sovereign Rule

There is such an approaching destruction coming to this nation. It will make the ears of the world tingle. Every third world country today has nuclear weapons and madmen controlling them and they all hate America.

Listen, friends. If the church will not defend His holy name, then the Almighty must. God will either pour out His blessings in revival to defend His holy name or He will pour out His wrath upon mankind to avenge His holy name.

It will either be a defending or avenging to show forth His glory and remind mankind He alone is the sovereign ruler of all. I stood in front of a building in the city of Rome that sits at the feet of the Spanish steppes and it is 300 years older than the entire United States.

We are a very young country that God elevated to a position of world influence and He can remove this entire nation with one stroke of His hand. One can almost hear the hoof beats of the approaching army of destruction on its way to our shores unless God sends us a national revival that turns this nation back to Him.

All that remains is chaos, terror, and utter destruction. May God have mercy on us all. Let us pray.